BTW income tax would not be be "progressive taxation”, it would be a "tax on the middle class" as the poor would be exempt and the rich would find ways to avoid it.

Can the middle class of this country survive with a 30% deduction of their income?

If Rupert Pinder can live comfortably with 30% reduction of his income, he should show the example and send a cheque to the Treasury on an annual basis along with other persons who support this tax.

There should be no discussion of new taxes until all due taxes have been collected.

Then we can study how VAT which was sold to us "to pay down the debt" had the exact opposite effect, with exploding budget deficits and record new debt, so that we are now near bankruptcy.

Andrew Allen, what are you doing in the Bahamas where everyone is so ignorant unlike you?

You are mixing up corporate tax and income tax

Well this would be a good solution to combat air pollution and traffic jams in the Bahamas. I am sure that Andrew Allen would agree, because only the rich would be paying this tax. But before this takes place an efficient public transport must be put in place, which won't be easy.

BTW the Bahamas is unable to collect property tax, which is the simplest form of tax in the world. How would the Bahamas collect the most complex and easy to avoid tax in the word? This is what needs to be answered, before going into any hypothetical debate about any tax reforms.

Why does the Bahamas not start by collecting all the due taxes? Anybody that does not address this matter when talking about new taxes, has no credibility.

You can't look at expenditure to GDP in 2020 because of the pandemic.

List of countries by tax revenue to GDP ratio:

Bahamas 17.9
Singapore 14.1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c…

BTW the Bahamian economy looks much more like Caymans than Singapore. When the Bahamian economy looks more like Singapore or Hong Kong maybe we can talk about tax reform. But right now the only thing attracting individuals and corporations to this nation is the tax free regime. To start taxing them directly would be economical suicide.

As an attorney please stick to law and do not dabble into economics where you knowledge is obviously minimal.

Yes, sure everybody is ignorant except you! Like I said previously, you need to resurrect the Vanguard party so that you can get the 200 votes that you deserve.

“those who consume the most. I.E. the poor.” Since when do the poor consume more than the rich? What is your definition of poor?

Caymans, Singapore and Hong Kong collect less than the Bahamas in tax % to GDP and have a much better economy than the Bahamas or France with the highest ratio in the world.

BTW the US and Europe that you cited produce things that they export all over the world, have major domestic corporations that are internationally competitive, unlike our economy where we attract foreign businesses and individuals due to our tax advantage. Taxing them directly would be economical suicide.

You cannot compare the Bahamas to the Europe or the USA (the is no Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Amazon here)

Government spending has climbed much more than economic output since 2008. Much of this spending has been to employ an over-compensated bloated civil service. In other words, the economic problem is that there has been too much spending. The right solution to this problem is to reduce the burden of government spending back to the levels of the early 21st Century.

Well VAT was introduced by the PLP, and it was the FNM who followed the PLP on this tax and helped the poor by excluding breadbasket items from VAT. Why did the PLP not exempt breadbasket items from VAT if they care some much about the poor?

And we have not had years of irresponsible austerity, we have had years of irresponsible spending with enormous budget deficits which have left this country almost bankrupt.

Also, the PLP like the FNM know very well that the only reliable form of tax in the Bahamas is VAT, because it is collected by the private sector at the expense of the private sector. No government will be stupid enough to get rid of the only reliable source of revenue at its disposal. Whoever wins the next election will increase VAT, the only question is by how much?

How about fixing the water leaks? That would probably eliminate the deficit.